


100 Drabbles

by Mizzy



Category: Leverage
Genre: Big Bang Challenge, Drabble, F/F, F/M, Gen, Leverage OT3, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-13
Updated: 2011-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-16 22:45:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizzy/pseuds/Mizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>100 Drabbles for Leverageland Big Bang.  First 50 based off prompt table, second 50 based off random pairings in all the various permutations Leverage offers (these 50 could be triggery - non-con, abuse.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	100 Drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Leverageland Big Bang for Team Grifter. \o/
> 
> Please feel free to request which drabble you would like to see extended and I'll add it to my to-do list.

1\. Light

“Sophie, don’t move.”

“Why?”

“The lights are linked to motion sensors?”

“We can’t stay frozen all night!”

“They’re not sensitive. If we move sloowwwlllly-“

“It’s gonna take half an hour to even get to the staircase.”

“Would you prefer the alternative? You should probably keep your voice down too.”

“You put the lights on a sound sensor too?”

“No. But  _they have ears_.”

“Okay. Slow, quiet. You take me on the  _best_  dates, Nate.”

Upstairs, Parker, Eliot and Hardison exchange rueful glances over a set of blueprints. 

Parker shakes her head. “It’s cute how they still think we don’t know.”

2\. Dark

Parker likes the dark. Everyone else goes on about how it’s  _nicer_  in the daylight but she feels safest when there’s no lights at all. The darkness is the place where she is in her element; a thief’s natural home. Eliot asked why all her hiding spots were surrounded by darkness and she couldn’t explain why she needed it. She couldn’t explain that darkness’s embrace was the only kind of hug she got growing up. It takes her a while to realise why she can’t explain it; it’s because she doesn’t need darkness anymore. It’s not her home. They are.

3\. Falling

Sophie Devereaux will never get the hang of rappelling. It’s Parker’s world; not hers. Still they need to learn each other’s skills; they’re all desperate to keep their strange new family together, so that’s why she’s there, strapped to a rig at the top of a ventilation shaft that disappears forty foot down into shadow.

Nate’s there too. He locks a clasp on her belt, then their eyes lock, and they jump. Her heart pounds. His arms are warm, secure. She lands safe, Nate’s eyes still on hers, her heart pounding hard, and Sophie thinks,  _yes, falling is like this._

4\. Snow

Sophie’s snowman is a featureless lump. She says it’s a pre-nose job Jennifer Aniston. To keep the peace they all agree the likeness is uncanny. Nate doesn’t build one. They’re okay with that. He and Sam used to make them. Enough said. Eliot makes a snow woman, complete with a fake rack that glamour girls would kill for. Hardison makes a snow dalek, which they all think is cool (pun unintended.) Parker does nothing all day but randomly hug everyone, one at a time. They think it’s leftover Christmas spirit, but they’ve forgotten she’s a thief: she’s stealing their heat.

5\. Fight

Eliot and Nate understand each other better than the world thinks. Their brains are wired similarly; it’s just their battle grounds that differ. Nate takes the fight on large, pitching his battle on a map, or on the spin of a globe. Eliot pitches his in a room, on the deck of a ship, in the kitchen, in underground lairs. Then the game is on: both of them working several steps ahead of everyone else, calculating what’s to come, who’s to move, which pawn to bring into action next. 

They also both loathe themselves. That’s the fight they’ll never win.

6\. Alone

Picture this: centre stage, arms outstretched, face heated by floodlights. Sophie can picture it so clearly. It was all she wanted, when she settled down into Chicago to live her honest citizen life; adoration and adulation from a stunned audience, taken aback by the raw power in her performance.

So when, four years into conning as a crew, a Hollywood legend calls her, summons her to a fabulous role, Sophie goes, lured by her younger self’s dreams. She climbs centre stage and spreads her arms wide-- and feels nothing but alone.

Nate cries on her return. He doesn't admit it.

7\. Hurt

People could hurt you. Hardison learned that lesson early, mocked about his lack of known parentage, the colour of the skin, the accent he spoke in. He learned how to change the latter, convinced it would help, but the slurs grew worse.

His body and his muscles wouldn’t grow fast enough, so he learned how to take people apart from the inside, using his computer like another limb. 

He held off from the obvious, and just became awesome. Years later, they would look at themselves and then at him, and that would hurt them more than his fists ever could.

8\. Promise

One thing they’ve all noticed at one time or another is that Nate doesn’t promise anything. Ever. Even at their client’s weakest moments, when they’re looking for bright words of encouragement, and the only promise they’re asking for is the promise Nate will try, he won’t say the words, he refuses to.

He won’t ever tell them why. Once, when he misjudged his Tennessee Mash limits, he muttered something about being a terrible promise breaker, and they all think it’s completely weird, but that’s because they don’t know.

They don’t know Nate promised Sam everything was going to be okay.

9\. Lost

Tara told herself she was just filling a niche, fulfilling a vow, paying a debt (if Sophie  _ever_  spoke a word about Manchester, she would die. Painfully.) 

She told herself she was only doing it for the money, and for the thrill of working with an unhinged but motivational debonair bastard, and his equally dysfunctional crew.

She told herself that even though she understood their motives she would never be one of them, and when her debt was repaid she would leave.

She paid her debt. She left.

She just never realized she wasn’t leaving them; she was losing them.

10\. Passion

Eliot didn’t tell anyone his family was still alive. He acted like they weren’t. He had learned early on in life that if you acted mysterious enough people assumed the worst. The truth is he’s ashamed of where he’s come from. He’s ashamed of what he has done. He’s ashamed of the people he comes from.

For a long time, he would said that he hated them and their bland, gray life; trailer trash with no ambition to get out and see the world. He said he hated them with a passion. But passion wasn’t worth wasting on his disappointment.

11\. Gift

Nathan Ford has been through living hell. There’s no metaphor with a better fit. He has walked through hellfire. He thinks hell let him through, recognizing him as one of their own and not paying him the bad attention he deserves. He drinks himself to sleep every night, half praying for an easy death, but that’s not what he deserves.

His life slips backwards, down a path that doesn’t even have good intentions to redeem it, and then life introduces him to Victor Dubenich. It takes him a long time before he accepts that meeting him was actually a gift.

12\. Jungle

“This show is amazing!”

Eliot, Hardison and Sophie peeked around the edge of the doorframe as Parker glued herself (not literally) to the TV. Last time it happened, she got hooked to Heroes, and thought her rappelling skills were super powers. This time, even though she was surrounded by all her usual TV watching detritus (cereal, popcorn, pretzels), all her mess was in straight lines, and even piles.

“Oh, god,” Hardison moaned. “That isn’t...?”

“Heaven help us all,” Eliot agreed.

“It’s a jungle out there,” the TV sang, as Parker lined up more popcorn fragments, “it’s a jungle out there.”

13\. Sadness

He’s Eliot Spencer, bad ass of the century, able to pull a man apart with two hands and one minute spare. He’s got a history of violence, a bevy of special moves, a furious temper and impeccable timing and awareness in a fight. He’s tough and strong, fast and funny, the best guy on any job you can even think of, and all he needs is a number to clear a building of people.

He would punch you if you told him he looked sad, even if it’s the truth. Even if sadness is all he’s felt since leaving Moreau.

14\. Singing

Hardison can’t figure out how they all know when he’s happy he’s finally hacked something difficult, because he makes sure his mouth doesn’t change, and he makes sure his eyes don’t move, and he doesn’t say a word; he just keeps going on to the next thing. But sure enough, at the next briefing, they all know the time he finished one thing and moved onto the next. He doesn’t get it himself until he loses his voice, and Parker gets sad. He asks why she’s sad. Apparently, when he’s doing well, he sings Hall & Oates under his breath.

15\. Lesson

 _You don’t con your own crew._  She should have listened to those words. She should have known she  _was_  in a crew. But she’s a Grifter at heart and a storyteller beneath that, old habits were hard to break, and the drama of completing both Davids was too difficult to resist. But she’s learned her lesson. She won’t do it again. She’s got too much to lose now.

Now she knows that, if Eliot can get over it, if Nate can stop being angry, if Hardison and Parker will forgive her, everything’s going to be okay. She’s learnt her lesson.

16\. Oranges

Parker asked Sophie what kind of food stuff she thought Nate was. For some reason the thief was blithering on about Hardison being a pretzel, and the logic was lost on Sophie. 

It took Sophie a while to come up with an answer: Nate was like an orange. Tough to peel into, then you had to spend ages pulling off the pith and pulling out the pips, but when you got down to it, usually worth the hassle.

Parker didn’t get  _her_  logic, either, until Sophie pointed out you could also inject an orange with vodka; then Parker agreed completely.

17\. Blood

The first time Eliot killed someone, he was surprised by the amount of blood. It spilled on his face, on his clothes, and all over the ground below. It was brighter than he had always imagined that much blood should look, and it had a thick smell, worse than sewage because it clung into your nose and lingered on you later.

Eliot always figured ‘blood on your hands’ was a metaphor, but even after he diligently scrubbed it away, he could still feel it. The sensation never went away. And sometimes, in a dull twilight, his hands still gleamed red.

18\. Tease

All of a sudden, Sophie gets real clumsy with her hands. She can’t do up her zips, or turn her earpiece on, or find the right setting on the toaster. It’s like she’s forgotten how to do the simplest things, and always, conveniently, when Nate is around, sitting nearby, minding his own business.

It’s not fair. Not that he has something better to do, but because he’s sure it’s a lie (she manages, for example, to buy four pairs of shoes on her own pretty well) and because his  _own_  fingers get pretty clumsy when he does things for her.

19\. Awkward

  
The morning after. Two separate clandestine searches for clothes. Avoiding looking at each other. The silence so tense you could break it with both hands. A thousand thoughts, none of them full, none of them audible, none of them spoken. The pressure of the others, just down the corridor, and no locked door to hide behind. The timing. How can anything ever be the same again between them? He opens his mouth to say something. She breathes half of a word. Nothing is resolved. The space between them is only metres but it might as well be a million miles. 

20\. Whisper

They’re playing Shaiya. It’s only a matter of weeks before Hardison gets him onto WoW now, he’s pretty sure. They’re talking in game, even though they’re sat a metre apart.

“THIS IS RUBBISH,” Eliot’s character says. Out loud. Several players move their avatars closer. “I HATE YOU.” In game, some people start insulting Eliot.

“Can’t you at least whisper insults to me?” Hardison complains. “! [name] [text], it’s not hard.”

Eliot stares across the lid of his laptop, then slams the thing down, hauls his hands in Hardison’s shirt and pushes in closer. “This. Is. Rubbish,” he whispers, and walks away.

21\. Sweet

Hardison spends so long dreaming about kissing Parker that it’s become almost a game, working out the different combinations of events that might lead to it next, but it becomes so large, so mind consuming, that he makes a spreadsheet: all the possible kinds of cons, cross referenced and coloured. Then he deletes it.

The next morning, he wakes to find Parker sitting on his feet. “You should empty your recycle bin,” she says. Hardison opens his mouth to protest and she leans in, kissing him. He didn’t spreadsheet either things – this scenario, or the fact her kisses taste sweet.

22\. Daring

The others don’t know where Sophie’s from - to them, England is a far-off exotic country, where they all drink tea and sound Scottish. 

Sophie was raised in London but her parents were from Newcastle – both with the accent, rich with its own dialect words. One phrase her Mam (mother) used to say a lot was: “shy bairns get nowt.”

Sophie knows what the words mean (shy children don’t get anything) but never really gets it until she’s half-pissed in San Lorenzo, and Nate’s mouth is so close. She dares, and he kisses back like he’s praying into her mouth.

23\. Devious

Eliot’s got a rep to protect. He’s a guy who works alone and doesn’t take any nonsense. He can’t abide prattling (Hardison, daily), insanity (Parker, usually), fashion talk (Sophie, multiple times), or denial (Nate, usually.) And one thing he isn’t: a good guy. Good guys don’t have his background. Good guys don’t have his rep.

So Eliot tells himself he’s just gathering recon about the kind of man he doesn’t want to be. It’s devious, but if the only way to make himself a good guy is to pretend he’s not doing it, then that’s what he’s going to do.

24\. Rich

It’s a fourth of July when Parker realizes she is, in fact, filthy stinking rich. She knows because the Forbes 400 list came out and she should be between Richard Scaife and Alan Gerry (except if she admitted where her $1.18BN came from, her impeccable career would be somewhat tainted.)

She can just about picture that much money, stretched out before her, but the once-upon-a-time urge to roll around in it isn’t there anymore – all she wants is for the others to come home so they can go watch fireworks from the roof. They’re all the riches she really needs.

25\. Nightmare

Moreau’s face stutters onto their monitors in place of the documents Hardison was showing. It’s clear he’s out of jail from the picturesque beach scene behind him and the scantily clad woman.

By his side is a pre-teen boy. Nathan’s heart stops for a moment. Moreau’s smirk is wide. “This is Sam Ford. I bribed the doctors to let you think he died,” he said. “I meant to use him, Ford, once upon a time as leverage for smuggling art, but this… this is so much better. If you don’t all start to work for me, then he dies. Painfully.”

26\. Thankful

It’s their first Thanksgiving together. Parker steals the turkey and sets it free in a park, missing the point somehow that it was  _already dead._  Eliot tries to watch “the game”, except Hardison keeps switching the TV leads to play episodes of a TV show where he’s  _positive_ one of the characters looks  _scarily_  like Eliot. Sophie burns the replacement turkey. Nate drinks himself half into a coma. They settle down at 10pm to watch an episode of  _Angel_  together that doesn’t have Lindsey in, to eat soggy pizza.

It’s still the best Thanksgiving any of them has ever had.

27\. Right

“Once upon a time I was sure everything I did was right. But now, I’m not sure any more. I need someone to check what I’m thinking, to make sure I’m still right, because without you, I’m not right at all.”

He writes a thousand of these while sober. He never sends them. It’s only when he’s painfully drunk that the truth comes out, “I need you, I need  _you_ ,” and then the other real truth half stutters out too, “I lo- I lo-“ (I love you.)

It stinks that he has to be drunk to be really, truly,  _right_.

28\. Blush

It’s very difficult not to tell Eliot the truth. They all struggle with it. It happens so often that they have all, at some point, found the truth there on the tip of their tongues, but like all good Grifters and Con Artists, they’re also very good at swallowing the truth and speaking a lie in its place.

Hardison has the most trouble with it, to refrain from telling Eliot it’s not a manful rage coloring his face but a blush - he’s  _blushing_. Like a _girl._

He, like the others, respects his intact bones too much to say it.

29\. Left

Just last year his most special thing in the world was Sam’s drawing. It was the one thing that made him convinced he wasn’t a thief, because it was a universal truth: thieves couldn’t have anything that couldn’t be abandoned in a time of need. Nate had that something, that totem, that small piece of paper that said  _yes, once Sam was here_  and  _yes, once I was happy._

Even now Nate can’t quite shift the thought that he isn’t a real thief. Because he does have something – his team. He can’t leave them behind. They’re all he has left.

30\. Weapon

Sometimes Nate deserves to be stabbed. Sophie’s pretty sure of that fact. They’re halfway to something special and bam, his mouth opens, and he inserts his foot. Or something happens to push him back into his little shell, or her into denial. Or he says something meaning to hurt himself, and it cuts her to the quick.

Sometimes he just doesn’t think before he acts, like kissing her before throwing himself away. She can’t stab him. A slap doesn’t mean anything but bridled passion. All that’s left is her words, so she shapes them midair like a knife and thrusts.

31\. Helpless

Alec Hardison has always had no one to sort out his problems but Alec Hardison. Even Nana would say that – his scrapes were his own to sort out. He’s grown up tough as a result. He won’t back down on a fight. He may run away like a girl, but that’s just self preservation, and his face is too pretty to survive too much punching.

He’s always liked to feel strong and tough and in control. That’s why Parker has him all tied up in knots, because when it comes to loving her, he’s not in control – he’s completely helpless.

32\. Fear

It just takes one thing  _off_  and he’s up, awake; the knife that’s under his pillow outstretched in his hands. It takes him a while to notice that he’s holding his blade to a space of thin air. 

It’s the fourth time this week Eliot’s woken this way. He goes to the bathroom to splash water on his face, and he catches a glimpse of something moving, and he’s abruptly scared.

He realizes a second later he’s scared of his own reflection. But of all the people this happens to, Eliot’s an exception – he doesn’t think it’s silly at all.

33\. Fire

Parker once set her step father on fire.

It wasn’t particularly the side effect she was going for – the explosion was just a distraction so she and Bunny could get out of that place intact. She just hadn’t figured out he’d be so close to the explosion.

He ran around behind her, screaming, unable to run away from the fire at his back. Parker eventually had to kick him over so he could roll and extinguish the flames. He looked up at her like he thought she was a monster.

She just stared down at him, knowing he was right.

34\. Shadow

“No, Parker,  _no._  You can’t do that. You can’t go that way. God damn it, Parker, you’re going to get your skinny ass killed. No, no, no-“

“Quit yelling at me. Moving like this is what I do!”

“I’m just telling you, you’ll get fried if you go that way. Use the traffic sign, naw, girl, you’re going to get... Aw, snap, see what I mean? Parker, Parker- Someone help me stop her smashing my PS2 to bits. Parker. Parker. I told you when you started playing  _Shadow the Hedgehog_  that you can  _get new lives if you die._ ”

“...oops?”

35\. Haunted

They’re partway through a job and Parker runs away.

Nate finds her. She’s hunched over a stolen cupcake in the park, picking at the frosting. 

“I can’t devise plans that include avoiding all boys on bikes,” Nate says, stealing the cake and tossing it to a nearby pigeon.

“Can you devise a scheme where he stops haunting me?”

She looks so small. Nate’s heart lurches. He can’t do anything but be strong for her.

“If I could, I would,” he says. That’s enough. She falls against him and pushes her face into the crook between his ear and his shoulder.

36\. Dawn

It’s too dark, why was it so dark? Even a fraction of light would help but the moon’s no help in the dark labyrinthine tunnels; he has to wait until sunlight. He’s bleeding heavily, but he can’t think about that. He has to keep above water, and as soon as he can see, he can get them out.

Even though it’s already too late.

Hardison holds onto Parker and fights. He’ll tread water until dawn. He’ll get her out, just like he promised, even if mentally he’ll spend the rest of his life there, her dead body in his arms.

37\. Midday

Eliot’s first thought: today’s going to be a hell of a day. 

He woke at five o’ clock to three triad guys waving cleavers in his face. He finished them off and was just dumping their bodies in the best location to say  _don’t do that again_  and he ran into someone he once hurt pretty badly. So he broke the guy’s nose. And on the way to Nate’s apartment an old client decided to say hello with a shotgun. Eliot took out him, and his five henchman.

All that before midday. Eliot re-classifies the day: kind of normal, actually.

38\. Evening

An evening in an ordinary family goes something like:

Mom cooking, dad reading a newspaper, kids playing; all five sit, eat dinner and bicker, then wash dishes, watch TV and bicker.

An evening in their family goes:

Eliot cooks dinner, because Nate only learned one dish in the prison kitchen. Hardison runs a newspaper RSS feed in the background at all times anyway. Parker breaks the dishes after a rowdy dinner because they all hate washing up. Sophie pulls some blueprints up on the TVs. They bicker about how to break in.

I know which one I’d prefer, don’t you?

39\. Night

In the morning, Nate wakes up from his sleep. He’s always vaguely surprised, but that’s because Nate doesn’t fall asleep much anymore – he passes out instead. Whether it’s sleep tablets or alcohol, they have the same affect – a pounding headache that makes him grouchy and uneven (so, no difference to sobriety, then.) The headache thuds throughout the day. He makes no effort to dissuade it, except maybe more alcohol. He likes the way the pain stops him thinking about the bad stuff.

In the night, he doesn’t have any such distraction. He’s alone with his memories. Unconsciousness is a blessing.

40\. Secret

Here is a secret that no one else knows:

She loves Alec Hardison more every day.

He’s the only person in the world who cares about her. Everyone else in her life just treats her like this thing. They just use her; it’s only Hardison who treats her special.

She can’t put her love into words. It’s just something she feels, down to the bare pieces she’s made of.

Those pieces are all that’s left of Lucille in the end, but she couldn’t be happier. If she could have, she would have driven herself into those flames to save him.

41\. Movie scene (Hackers)

If he hadn’t handed the disc over to the Ellingson security creep, Nana would be hurt. He had no choice.

The other hackers stare at him like he’s insane.

“ Yo, man, you an amateur, man” Nikon howls.

“That’s universally stupid!” Cereal Killer moans.

“Why would he come to you?” Kate demands.

“I got a record,” Hardison admits. “I was Zero Cool.”

Nikon’s eyes unfocus. “Zero Cool? Crashed fifteen hundred and seven systems in one day?”

Hardison nods. They save the day, but Hardison works forever on his own afterwards. He’d told them before: he doesn’t play well with others.

42\. Movie scene (Labyrinth)

Sophie doesn’t mean to accidentally wish away her babysitting charge, so when he’s whisked away by the goblins she fights her way through the Labyrinth to get him back, because she needs the £10 sitting fee to get those boots she’s after.

Except at the centre of the Labyrinth, the hottie Goblin King in over-revealing tights starts crooning about giving her everything she wants if she’ll just let him rule her.

“Okay, deal.” 

Apparently she shouldn’t have stopped him mid-song. Whatever. He gave the baby back. 

Halfway through her third one woman production of Hamlet, he sent her back too. 

43\. Movie scene (Saw)

“Hello, Parker. Do you want to play a game? All your life you’ve stolen from others without thinking about the consequences. Will you risk your hands, the tools of your craft, to spare your life, or will yerkkkkk---!!”

The tape recorder hits the floor. John Kramer, aka the Jigsaw Killer, looks up at an unimpressed Parker.

“No one’s ever caught me. You thought some low-rate serial killer - whose sense of drama is worst than Nate’s - is going to catch me?”

She knocks him out, highlights essential evidence, and Kramer wakes up to the grinning visage of Lt. Bonanno.

44\. Movie scene (Battle Royale)

They did it. They’re the last two standing. They’re on the last square of the island, the speakers blaring out a countdown. When the numbers hit zero...

Sophie looks down at her hand, Nate’s entwined in it, and he’s looking at her with an indescribable expression.

“I love you,” Sophie says, meaning,  _let’s die together._

He smiles. “Come here,” he whispers. He kisses her. She loses herself in it. Then he pushes her away and she tumbles to the ground, and he rips off his own collar.

She never stops screaming. The taste of his blood never leaves her mouth.

45\. Movie scene (Twilight)

She led him up to the trees. It was better that way. No one to hear his secrets. 

“You’re impossibly fast,” Bella says, voice tight. “And strong. Sometimes, you speak like you’re from a different time. You never eat cafeteria food.”

It’s ridiculous. He’s from another town, not time. Cafeteria food is poison. 

“How old are you?” Bella asks.

Eliot shrugs. “Seventeen,” he says, and he’s sure she’s going to get it now, and realize the truth - he skipped a grade.

“And how long have you been seventeen?” Bella asks him, eyes wide, lip trembling.

Eliot stares. “-the fuck?” 

46\. Renegade

Oh momma I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law.

Nate shuts the song off, squeezing his eyes tight, not wanting to hear it. He thinks a lot about his momma and what she would think of him now. With his life before he knew she would have been proud, but now he’s not sure. Would it matter that he’s helped hundreds of people get a better life? He’s sure he could argue the point, but she wouldn’t say a thing - she would look at him like she used to look at his father.

47\. Rehab

It was crazy, but they had a member of a crew who needed it - rehab was necessary. So a plan was sketched, Sophie brought out her doctor boots, Hardison hacked their database, and Eliot kept the calm.

It was the strangest job they had ever pulled, not even considering the fact that their client was one of their own, but rehab had helped last time, so it definitely should help now.

In the end, they didn’t have to con Parker to go – when Nate found out he just told her no one had ever broken in to rehab  _twice_.

48\. Don’t Let Go

The wind’s stronger than Hardison expected, and it’s more difficult to gulp air in than he thought it would be, but he’s not going to back down. The team needs him, so he’s going to do this.

He pulls the straps on, checks, and triple checks, but there’s only so much checking that can happen, so he attaches the cord to the rooftop, struggles in another breath, and jumps.

He lands by the twenty-second floor, and Parker hauls him in by his chest straps. His stomach swoops.

“Don’t let go,” he says, trembling.

Parker pulls him in. “I never will.”

49\. Lose Yourself

The drinking is okay if he rationalizes it. Alcoholics only became alcoholics by accident, so if Nate goes into it with eyes wide open, then it’s a problem, but it can’t be as bad as outright denial.

He swallows each shot like it’s medicine. Each mouthful is a prescription to himself.  _Take this magical medicine, and you can lose yourself in the haze._

The alcohol does what it says on the bottle. Nate does lose himself. The bottle didn’t mention, though, that when he lost himself, he wouldn’t like the person that crawled into his reflection as he melted away.

50\. Oh, Death

It was never meant to be this way, but now they were all gone.

It was a hard job, but he had plans from A to Z and back again, and every eventuality was covered. Everything was in place. The Marks were on the hook, and the bad guys were ready to get their just desserts, and it was all completely perfect. It wasn’t even illegal. They used their real passports and everything.

All was planned except the earthquake, then the tsunami, then the fires.

Nate could take down Moreau, and fight any bad guy, but he couldn’t fight nature.

 

51\. Nate/Sophie

Sophie had retired. Given up her life of crime. There came that moment in every Grifter’s life when you had to look really hard at your life, balances the pros and the cons, figure out if the risk was worth the thrill. Were the risks worth the payout?

So Sophie locked away her retirement plans, and settled down to a civilian life. Gone were the blueprints in favor of scripts. Gone were the gorgeous dresses, replaced by costumes.

Then he showed up, clapping, and she knew: Nathan Ford was worth any and every risk in the world. Including her heart.

52\. Nate/Eliot

Eliot has a smackdown prepared, ready for those that fight dirty. He wants to use it on Nate. Nate doesn’t play  _fair_  or fight like anyone else; he’s always three steps ahead. He just dodges out of the way, a smile on his face the whole damn time.

Eliot can’t win, so he fights dirty back – pushing Nate into the wall. Nate melts into him like he’s expecting it, keeping the kisses open mouthed and dirty, the way Eliot likes them. Eliot should feel mad that Nate even saw  _this_  coming, but he’s too distracted by Nate’s hands to care.

53\. Nate/Hardison

The first time Hardison finds the links, he genuinely thinks it’s a mistake on Nate’s part, and he smirks all day.

Except next week it happens again – page upon page of gay porn. Curiosity gets the better of him. Each video is of an older white guy surrendering to a younger black man. Hardison flushes, aroused, and can’t look Nate in the eyes. 

But week three tells Hardison it’s not an accident –it’s an invitation. And better still, Nate wrote it  _in his language._  Hardison laughs out loud, and turns his laptop off. Some things were worth logging off for.

54\. Nate/Parker

Parker knows if she asks, Nate will say no. If she throws herself naked in his bed?  _Still_  no. It’s frustrating how he thinks of her as a child. She’s a woman, and she has needs.

She writes him letters he doesn’t respond to, telling him what she wants to do to him. He reads them, because he flushes and can’t say her name without stuttering. 

He still holds back. So she does the only thing a thief can do – she starts planning her next job. To get him to sleep with her, she’ll just have to steal his heart. 

55\. Nate/Maggie

-he can’t tell her what he did there aren’t any words for it even catching a glimpse of himself in the edge of his whiskey tumbler makes him want to beat his own brains in with a block of cement and he can’t tell Maggie any of this because she’ll hate him and want to hurt him but she’s too good to hurt him even though she should bash his brains in she’s too noble and he loves her but it’s best if she does go so he’ll be an asshole so she’ll leave and save herself from him please-

56\. Nate/Sterling

He remembers it just as clearly as Sterling does; that spot on the roof, where they would sit and drink and inevitably, sex. He and Maggie hadn’t been getting on since Sam was born. Sterling couldn’t hold a woman down with both hands. 

It was probably because they had each other. They didn’t ever put themselves into words, but they knew each other’s bodies well, and they knew the feel of stubble on their cheeks which wasn’t their own.

“We were never friends,” Nate told Sterling, and that was the truth – they weren’t.

They used to be so much more.

57\. Nate/Tara

“This is just to make Maggie jealous,” Tara says, although it’s too late for it to be put into words; her dress is already puddled at her waist, and his clever hands are halfway through melting her into liquid form.

“Just a favor for me,” Nate returns, a laugh in his voice as he trails his mouth down her neck. He kisses her while he works her with his hand. He tastes of bourbon and shrimp, but Tara doesn’t care; as long as he continues she doesn’t even care that he’s thinking of another woman, one who isn’t even there.

58\. Nate/Bunny (I’M SO SORRY!)

They told him he had a problem; he hadn’t listened. That was status quo for him, he was pretty sure. But it was a problem he was aware of, so that made it better than being a problem he was in denial of, right? He had enough mental capacity to stumble into one of Parker’s hiding places so he didn’t pass out in a ditch. 

Nate woke up half naked on Parker’s bed, pants on the ground, Bunny covered with evidence of his shame. Parker was going to  _kill_  him. Nate morosely realized he did, in fact, have a problem.

59\. Nate/Moreau

Nate had a secret that no one knew. His desire for going after Damien Moreau was more than a desire to see his family safe, or to keep himself out of prison. His hang ups and guilt made him feel he belonged in prison, despite his good motives. 

A long time ago he hadn’t been a good person. He ran with gangs. He did his father’s biddings on the street of Boston. And when he and Moreau found corners to use each other and satisfy hormonal lusts, Moreau called him whore, not Ford.

Moreau never remembered. Nate would never forget.

60\. Nate/Blackpoole

They ran out of money long before Maggie ever knew they were broke. 

Blackpoole kept pushing the claims through, and took the payment out on Nate himself; something Nate vowed would remain an eternal secret.

Those weeks were living hell. Nate took tranquilisers to block the memories; Blackpoole’s rancid scent, the weight pushing against him, the fake smiles as Blackpoole held his body for ransom against Sam’s health.

Nate had to give up eventually or go insane, but he gave up one month too soon. Blackpoole wouldn’t take him back. Called him broken. Blackpoole never knew how true that was.

61\. Nate/Jim Ford

Parker and Hardison are often jealous. They both wish that they got to keep their real parents. Nate never takes part in that discussion, because he doesn’t know how he would keep from vomiting, and his father just isn’t worth the effort. Not any more.

Nate was a brilliant dad, precisely because he vowed to never become his own father. He knew the rules. No good father would pass his own son around as a bargaining chip. No good father would watch the resulting orgy as Nate would pass out from the pain. 

No good father would have taken part.

62\. Nate/Archie

They’re both drunks, both thieves and when they get to the point of drunkenness or loneliness where horniness begins to overpower good sense, they don’t need to be coy or shy about it. They are in the same line of work and in the same position, and no signals are necessary – only signs. Nate leaves a flower pot in his window. Archie puts a tie on a lamp post. The signals are an upfront “let’s” and “shall we”, and a mutual relief of tension. It’s a buddy arrangement and it works.

Parker was so very pissed when she found out.

63\. Sam/Parker

Parker’s in a hospital. The monitor’s not used, and Archie’s promised it to a downtown hospital in Mexico that needs it. She thought she got in clean, but she finds a small boy watching her.

“Hi, I’m Sam. You’re pretty. What’s your name?” the boy says.

“Parker,” she says.

“Should you be doing that?” he asks.

“Yes,” Parker lies.

“Okay. I’m going to marry you one day, Parker.” 

Sam smiles so wide that Parker freezes.

“Okay,” she says. “As long as you don’t tell anyone I’m taking this.”

“Deal.”

When she finds out he died later that day, she cries.

64\. Parker/Hardison

It shouldn’t be so hard to say. Regular people said it all the time. It was just words. Apart they didn’t mean anything. Still, he’s a man, and he’s going to say it.

“Parker!” he hollers. She turns and looks at him across the room. “Would you sldfjakljfkljsfkljkl,” he manages.

She stares at him. “What did you say?”

“Would you asjllasdkjfklajldkjlkads.”

“Huh?”

“Would you like a pretzel?”

He resists the urge to facepalm. Moments later, Parker’s there, snuggling into him, her thin arms around him.

He didn’t need to worry. She knows what he means.

“I’d love one,” she says.

65\. Parker/Eliot

Of everyone, Eliot’s most surprised when it’s Parker that’s able to stop him mid-punch. She’s physically holding his fist. She can’t weigh any more than 40 kilograms, and she can hold back his strongest uppercut.

“When will you people remember  _I hang off buildings from my fingertips_ ,” she says, impatiently.

He stares at her. She smirks, knocks him to the ground, and takes his jeans off before he can stop her. She looks down, unimpressed. “I thought you would know what to do when a naked girl climbs on you.”

“You’re not naked,” he reminds her.

“I can fix that.”

66\. Parker/Maggie

Maggie knew about Parker. Parker was insane. That was pretty much all Nate’s file on Parker had ever said, back when he worked for IYS. Parker. No first name, no last name. Insane.

She hadn’t really connected Parker and insane until that briefing, when Parker dipped in slow to sniff her shoulder. Parker’s proximity had awoken something in her, something she used to think lost. It unsettled her, and Parker knew.

When Parker kissed her, mouth soft and so sweet, around a corner where no one could see, Maggie kissed back. Insanity was obviously catching, and tasted like fortune cookies.

67\. Parker/Sophie

Sophie was teaching her how to play a part, but Parker was distracted. The dress she was wearing didn’t fit properly, and her skin felt tight, and Sophie kept touching her skin, her hair. Sophie went on and on, oblivious.

Parker hit her patience limit, and ripped her dress off and then went for Sophie’s too. It seemed fair. Then it was all limbs, all softness, and wet kisses for hours, pressing each other down into the pile of costumes, curling into each other.

“As long as you don’t do that mid-con,” Sophie says afterwards, breathless, “we’ll be just fine.”

68\. Parker/Tara

Parker’s fingers are tight and she will not let go. Not until she is ready. Tara’s spilling off the building top, a couple of loose hairs tumbling away already, Tara’s skin turning red in a way that had been pleasing the last few nights. (Tara liked to be rough, and Parker was easy to throw around; Tara liked to be held down, and Parker liked to oblige; Tara’s body was interesting, like exploring a new building, laying down a blueprint of  _Tara_  with her tongue and her fingertips.) 

The anger of the betrayal is blinding and painful while it lasts.

69\. Parker/Sterling

Parker’s so impressed with the way Sterling handles himself during the Zanzibar Marketplace job that she surprises him that night, showing up naked in his hotel room.

She knows that approach is okay, because he really is an utter bastard. After a few moments of staring and going for his gun (she stole it earlier and flushed it) and a knife (it’s in the fish tank in the lobby), he eventually takes her in a manly fashion.

After that, he keeps doing odd things like sending her flowers. It’s all irritating, but then it’s Sterling, she should have expected it.

70\. Parker/Bunny (Uh. *loses the plot*)

It’s not like she had a very great upbringing, but Bunny has been there for every major part of it, so Parker’s not going to leave her out of this one. Archie has been most unhelpful in telling Parker what certain words meant when she heard them on TV all the time, so she researched them herself in a book. She’s going to have her first orgasm- it’s only fair that Bunny gets to watch, because Bunny doesn’t have genitalia of his own.

She enjoys it. Why wouldn’t she? If she uses her fingers, it’s just like picking a lock.

71\. Parker/Moreau

He started off wanting to hurt her, this tiny girl that had so much attention and love from Ford and his people. He planned to break her tiny body in half. 

But Parker’s tough, beautiful, and breaks every restraint he puts her in. One night he tries to restrain her with his body, and he’s the one who ends up tied to the headboard, panting and desperately in love with her.

“Stockholm syndrome,” she says, when he tries to tell her. “Victims always fall for their captors.”

“I caught you,” Moreau manages. Parker arches one eyebrow to reveal the lie.

72\. Parker/Archie

“Break into this museum for me and I’ll buy you ice cream. Manage to steal those jewels and I’ll give you a whole box of money for yourself. Crack this safe and you can keep half of whatever you find.”

Parker was used to doing what she was told. Archie was the King of her own little world. She didn’t know any different. She didn’t know anyone lived their life in another way.

Except she got locked in a house one night, and watched a family, a normal family. Archie’s family. Her mind started screaming and it never, ever stopped.

73\. Hardison/Eliot

It was ridiculous. If Hardison used that fake gay couple excuse one more time, Eliot was going to rip his head off, put amphetamines in his orange soda, or something  _worse_  But what?

Eliot decided to come up with a backup plan in case Hardison did it again, something to teach him a lesson.

Sure enough, come the con, Hardison wrapped his arms around Eliot’s waist while telling a Receptionist about their gay love. Eliot snarled, and yanked Hardison into him – covering his mouth with his own, kissing away all protests.

Hardison pulled back, looking smug. “Took you long enough.”

74\. Hardison/Archie

It started out as mere curiosity, wanting to find out more about Parker’s life as a child, wanting to understand his best friend more, to help her. He certainly didn’t intend this – to be spread out on the bed beneath him, as Archie taught him things with his body, about his body, that Hardison never knew. In amongst profanities and pleas to God, Hardison thought.  _I’ll never find out anything useful this way._

Hardison went away from the meeting with wobbly knees, and an inability to sit down. He had learned one thing – Archie was a  _hell_  of a teacher.

75\. Hardison/Chaos

His cell phone chirped. Hardison ignored it. It chirped again. Hardison ignored it again.   
Then his cell phone started playing Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams” and his phone didn’t even have that as a ringtone, so he picked it up.

Hardison was halfway through reading the message before he realized it was somebody Sexting him, and he all the way through the message (and unfortunately halfway hard) before he realized who it was from.

“DUDE,” he texted back furiously, thoroughly aroused and displeased, “NOT COOL.”

“BUT I WANT TO BE IN UR BASE,” Chaos replied. “PLUNDERING UR LOOT.”

76\. Hardison/Sophie

They were pretending to be married for a con. Hardison scooched lower in the seat, trying not to blush at all the appraising glances he was getting from the old white ladies sitting around the table, fluttering their fake eyelashes at him.

“Sophie,” he whined, low in her ear, “you’ve made them all think I’m available to cougars.”

Sophie leant in closer, her breath hot on his cheek. “Are you saying I’m a cougar? I’m not old.”

“Of course not,” Hardison stuttered, flustered by her. “You’re... young, hot, and attractive-“

“We’ll definitely talk about the hot part later,” Sophie said.

77\. Hardison/Sterling

Sterling starts showing up everywhere Hardison goes. At first he thinks it’s because Sterling has something over him, but when Sterling shows up at his favorite cafe, and orders an orange soda float...

“Dude,” Hardison shrieks, “do you like me or something?”

Sterling’s mouth falls open and he can’t muster a reply in time enough to sound convincing.

Hardison stops, considers it, and shrugs. “I’ve had worse,” he says, and grins predatorily at Sterling. “’sides, any excuse to shut you up, man, I’m taking it.”

Sterling regains the talent to speak, but Hardison soon puts a thorough stop to it.

78\. Hardison/Bunny

Nate had told him no porn on the job and he really should have listened. But it was only hentai, and his earpiece was off...

Time ticks on, and Hardison is finishing when he sees movement on the screens that isn’t his porn. “Aw, man.” He reaches for something to wipe his hands, and flips his earpiece back on.

“Bogey on your six,” he calls. “On it,” Eliot responds. 

Hardison turns to dispose of the evidence of his misdemeanour, and that’s when he finds in horror what he wiped his hands on.

Bunny.

Parker is definitely going to kill him.

79\. Hardison/Maggie

Maggie shows up when he’s mid-stream, so Hardison doesn’t even have a chance to change character. His fake accent feels too big in his mouth all of a sudden, and he struggles to get it all out. Unfortunately, Maggie manages to sweet talk Hardison’s Mark into believing she’s Hardison’s girlfriend.

Hardison doesn’t figure out why until later, when she kisses him, her mouth hot, her lipstick sliding over his own mouth.

“Don’t use me to make Nate jealous,” he warns, as her mouth slips lower.

“But don’t you enjoy the using?” Her hands slip low too and he can’t protest.

80\. Hardison/Moreau

Eliot wasn’t the only one pretending when walking into that swimming pool.

Hardison was pretending too. Moreau let him, because if the truth came out, it would damage his rep. Because Damien Moreau wasn’t _gay._

Hardison knew otherwise. He paid his way through college by prostitution; Moreau was his best customer. Hardison quit when Moreau revealed he loved him. Moreau quit their life together when someone found out and threatened to reveal them.

Moreau played along with Hardison’s lie, apart from the real rage on his face when he was pushed into the pool, and that rage was all self-directed.

81\. Hardison/Tara  
Hardison’s so used to blonde white girls being either Parker or vacuous, that during a con at E3, his mouth drops open and stays there the whole time that Tara takes on the new Metal Gear Solid demonstration and comes out with a perfect score. The makers declare it a fluke, so she ignores the queue and restarts the demo, and wins it again.

She stares at him as she bounces down from the console. “What?” she says.

“You’re my perfect woman,” Hardison says, stunned into honesty.

Tara links her arm in his and leans in. “Do tell me more.”

82\. Eliot/Sterling

The door is on a timer and won’t unlock for thirty minutes. Eliot stares down at all his victims.

“They’re not going to wake up for hours,” Sterling comments. 

Eliot sighs.

“Why the sigh? You got them all.” Sterling folds his arm and leans against the wall to wait.

“I’m a man of base urges,” Eliot admits. “I hit a few guys, I’m kind of in the mood for sex.”

Sterling looks horrified. Eliot looks at the bodies, shakes his head, and then looks at Sterling contemplatively.

“No!” Sterling shouts.

Eliot notes afterwards that he didn’t protest for very long.

83\. Eliot/Moreau

Always after a big day, Moreau finds some time for just them, some quiet corner or seedy motel room where they won’t be interrupted. Moreau can spend hours worshipping Eliot’s body with just his mouth, and Eliot’s addicted, he can’t deny that. It’s not even that Moreau’s absurdly physically attractive – Eliot’s been with better – but it’s the accent, and it’s the absurd amount of power that Moreau has, and Moreau  _surrenders_  to him; it’s exhilarating.

Moreau moves above him now, capturing him completely. “We’re going to rain blood down on these people,” Moreau says, undulating slowly.

Yes, Eliot thinks.  _Yes._

84\. Eliot/Tara

One thing that Eliot has not failed to notice is how many times Tara manages to lose her clothing during a con. Sometimes it’s a towel drop, sometimes it’s an important clothes change mid-con. He’s going out of his head.

The next con, it happens  _again_ , and he ends up with an armful of naked Tara and a definite belief he did something more  _horrendous_  in his past life than in his current one. He can’t look away.

“God damn it woman, are you doing this deliberately?” Eliot demands.

Tara arches one perfect eyebrow. “Took you long enough,” she purrs.

85\. Eliot/Sophie

He gave her such grief over her betrayal of the team that he can barely look her in the eye. Now it’s out there, his tremulous past, and he can’t take it back, and even saying it – in the nothing words he managed – bring it all back. It takes all he can do to stay conscious as he falls to the floor, kneeling.

Sophie crouches down next to him, and puts a warm hand on his head – a benediction. She folds him into her arms and it’s only there, wrapped up in her, that he feels safe enough to cry.

86\. Eliot/Maggie

Her voice is playful when she says, “There’s a cloakroom over there that I can bribe the attendant to abandon.”

Eliot lets her drag him to it. She’s all over him the instant the door closes. “Leave your glasses on,” she gasps, and Eliot slides into her in one go, holding her up against the wall, pulling her down onto him. She’s a complete firecracker and Eliot could so easily fall in love.

He’s giddy with it, and when he pulls her over to see Nate, and Nate reveals who she is, his heart sinks like lead in his chest.

87\. Sophie/Tara

“Sexy and broken, I’ll give you sexy and broken.” Sophie’s words are low and breathless, and Tara stares at Sophie across the room, confused by Sophie’s furious reaction. She hadn’t meant any harm...

Sophie hurls herself across the room, and tangles her hands in Tara’s hair. “You’re mine, I won’t have him taking you away from me,” Sophie says, low and urgent and broken, “you’re  _mine._  I shouldn’t have even let them borrow you-“

Tara wants to protest, but then Sophie’s mouth is against hers and nothing else matters but the fury, ebbing into passion and taking them both away.

88\. Sophie/Chaos

“Tell me again.”

“What?”

“Tell me why you didn’t want to work a con against me.”

“It’s rather- uh-“ He gasps and shudders as she tightens around him. “I never wanted to be part of a- a con against you, Sophie Devereaux. Everyone knows you’re the best.”

“Tell me more.”

“Everyone knows you’re the best. I worship you.”

“Yes. Yes.”

“Oh, oh, I love you-“

Afterwards, she dresses like nothing is weird. Chaos stares as she climbs out of his van. He can’t explain what has just happened, but he feels like he’s just been run over by a truck.

89\. Sophie/Maggie

They were arguing about Nate.

It was bound to happen – the ex and the missus in the small space of a hotel room – and of course the argument wasn’t really about Nate, it was about the reckless danger Sophie was putting Nate in, so Sophie started hollering back about Maggie dragging his heart all over the place, why didn’t Maggie just move on, so Nate could move on already?

Sophie didn’t exactly mean Maggie should pick  _her_  so Nate could move on, but she couldn’t deny the plan had appeal when Maggie stopped arguing and turned her hot breaths to Sophie’s skin.

90\. Sophie/Bunny

The con’s gone wrong. The Mark is watching her on video. She needs to lure him in, make him think she’s a wanton sex fiend, or it won’t work.

The best plan is to play pretend, so Sophie grabs hold of some material, bunches it up, sits astride it and pretends to rock herself to an orgasm. She’s really getting into the act, loud moans included, when she realizes the truth – she forgot to act. The climax washes over her. She scrambles up dizzily, picks up the material, and freezes.

What the  _hell_  was Bunny doing in her hotel room?!

91\. Nate/ Bonanno

Bonanno becomes obsessed with finding them, and it makes Nate’s planning harder, but much more interesting. Bonanno has the mind of a shark. Nate barely keeps his usual two paces ahead.

It goes on for years. There’s a few times where Nate’s almost positive Bonanno has nearly caught them, and a couple more where he’s sure, but Nate and his crew dance away with their lives and reps intact.

Bonanno’s wife leaves him. Sophie starts a relationship with another Grifter. Neither really notice, too busy interweaving each other into their lives. When it becomes personal, intimate, no one’s really surprised.

92\. Nate/”Nikki”

Nate’s enjoying himself, so it stands to reason something’s going to go wrong. He’s halfway through luring the Mark when the Mark gestures over to introduce him to someone. She turns around. It’s Nikki. Well, the girl who called herself Nikki.

They gape at each other. The Mark is confused.

“ _You_ ,” Nikki says, obviously just as incapable of knowing his real name.

“Me,” Nate says, trying not to pretend he’s just as stunned.

Later, when she tries to punch him, he kisses her instead. She still doesn’t know his name, but she uses God’s name in vain and it suffices.

93\. Nate/Larry Duberman

Duberman’s making loud sounds like he’s in an amateur porno, which is somewhat appropriate giving the location and the activity.

They’re not even in a stall, just in the middle of the floor, and Duberman’s holding Nate’s head in both hands, pushing him in closer, eyes shut, like this happens a lot. Then again, Duberman’s got enough money to save several third world countries; maybe it did.

Nate should feel bad, but he doesn’t, because it’s not Nathan Ford on the floor of the bathroom that night, mouth stretched around Duberman like it’s not completely messed up. It’s Drake Macintyre.

94\. Sophie/Sterling

Nate takes his self loathing to new extremes, and Sophie finally,  _finally_  gives up longing for him. Instead of feeling wretched, she feels like a giant weight has been lifted from her chest and she can breathe.

It doesn’t mean she’s not sad about it, but she realizes she’s grieving for a man who just didn’t exist anymore.

She’s completely shocked when she finds a man – an honest man - almost identical to the Nathan Ford she fell in love with once upon a time, she’s surprised when it’s Sterling, and, finally, she’s blindsided when he falls in love with her too. 

95\. Sophie/Moreau  
When Moreau got out of jail, Nate knew it was a mistake to let Sophie pretend to be one of his pool girls to get close to him. It hadn’t worked for the Italian, after all. Sophie insisted she was better than the Italian; also, he wouldn’t be looking at her face.

Moreau recognized her instantly. But he was clever. Instead of brutalizing her, Moreau seduced her, first into his bed, and then into becoming his wife. 

Hurting Sophie would have peeved Nate into a murderous rage. Taking her away, on the other hand, immobilized him forever with a broken heart.

96\. Parker/Hardison/Eliot

They try it in all possible combinations at first, knowing they have to do something about the simmering chemistry between them before they explode. Eliot’s too scared of breaking Parker, Parker’s too shy to tell Hardison what she wants, Hardison and Eliot can’t do anything but have angry sex, and that’s exhausting.

None of it makes sense until after one long con. Nothing particularly sparks it off; they’re just tired, and naturally fall together on the sofa to sleep. But when they wake, Parker nestled between them, Eliot’s hand on Hardison’s heart, Hardison’s cheek against Eliot’s, and everything just  _fits_.

97\. Sophie/Starke

She shouldn’t keep going back, but she can’t help herself. She can’t joke to herself that it’s anything permanent, that Starke has any proper hold over her, but she gave her heart to him long ago. He accepts her every time without question, into his arms and into his bed, and seems reluctant when she leaves. She wonders if he would be as reluctant if she stayed, but she won’t push it.

He’s a forger. Their relationship is entirely fake. But sometimes, to a girl who doesn’t even have a real name, it’s the most real thing in Sophie’s life.

98\. Nate/Sterling/Sophie

 _Sterling never loses._  It’s the mantra he keeps repeating to himself, his morning affirmation which helps remind him that the world is sane.

He forgets to say it one morning, and runs into Nate and Sophie, who are running a con on his guy. He says it again,  _Sterling never loses_ but it’s too late. They stay up discussing their moves over some local moonshine. He wakes up between them, groggy and with a full set of memories. Nate smiles at him predatorily, Sophie giggles, and Sterling misses off the affirmation from then on – he really  _can’t_  lose at anything. 

99\. Nate/Eliot/Sophie

Eliot’s so convinced he’s broken that they can’t just sit back and let him think he’s worthless, because he’s not. He’s beautiful and strong and the world has forgiven him his ills a thousand times over.

They try to tell him in words, but when he doesn’t listen, they tell him with their bodies which he responds to more, welcoming in more deeply than society accepted easily, but it works for them. Eliot slowly starts to believe in himself but by that time Nate and Sophie can’t let him go, he’s too much of them, they’re too much of him.

100\. Nate/Sophie/Eliot/Hardison/Parker

Too many cons was bound to bring in too much attention, and so they had to lie low for a while. Without blueprints to pore over at dinnertime, Nate bemoaned the lack of a different puzzle, and Parker said something about how  _they_  would all fit together, and could they blueprint it?

For a week none of them mentioned it, but it was there in every conversation. Hardison tried to make a blueprint. Eliot corrected it. They end up poring over the white lines, Nate made a table up of possible combinations, and instead of planning cons they planned  _them_.


End file.
